2020-02-21 Fri

On February 21, 1848, The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx with the assistance of Friedrich Engels, is published in London by a group of German-born revolutionary socialists known as the Communist League.

Friedrich Engels was a German philosopher, historian, communist, social scientist, sociologist, journalist, and businessman. The son of an owner of large textile factories was in military service in the Prussian Army as a member of the Household Artillery. While coming back to Germany from the UK, he stopped in Paris to meet Karl Marx.

Paris was at the time a center for socialist thought, and Marx adopted the more extreme form of socialism known as communism, which called for a revolution by the working class that would tear down the capitalist world. Marx and Engels were expelled from France and settled in Brussels. During the next two years, Marx and Engels developed their philosophy of communism.

In 1847, the League of the Just, a secret society made up of revolutionary German workers living in London, asked Marx to join their organization. Marx obliged and with Engels renamed the group the Communist League and planned to unite it with other German worker committees across Europe. The pair were commissioned to draw up a manifesto summarizing the doctrines of the League.

The German Democratic Republic, in the year 1964, issued a 50 Mark banknote in honor of one of the creators of communist ideology Friedrich Engels. The note depicts Portrait of Friedrich Engels & National Emblem of the GDR in underprint at the center on the obverse. The reverse, on the other hand, is a combination of wheat field & the name of National Emblem of the German Democratic Republic at upper left.

Image Courtesy: worldbanknotescoins.com